Biz media could have done a better job on economy

William Powers of the National Journal notes that there’s a lot of finger pointing in the media these days about who’s to blame for the current economy, but the business media isn’t pointing fingers at itself.

Powers writes, “Journalists focused on the surface aspects of the bubble — rising home prices, growing consumer debt — and didn’t work hard enough to figure out what was happening at the ‘highly sophisticated level’ where the richest and most powerful make their money.

“To draw a rough analogy, it’s a bit like what happened in the run-up to the Iraq war. A lot of smart people in the media thought that something might be fishy in the administration’s WMD claims. And a few news outlets dug into the fishiness and poked some holes in those claims. But by and large, the media culture was content to see what it could see, report the soothing things that senior officials said, and leave it at that.

“Covering financial markets is very tricky because there are myriad levels, many of them hidden and arcane. The easy route is the well-trodden one followed by CNBC and other popular outlets: Cover the markets as a fun game that anyone can win. And go along with the popular mood. When the bulls are running, cheer them on. When there’s blood in the streets, cry murder, while assuring your audience that good times could be just around the corner. Because that’s what people want to hear.”

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